“Our hearts are restless until they rest in you,” wrote St. Augustine. Over 1,000 years later, George Herbert wrote a poem giving us the backstory as to why this is so.
George Herbert lived from 1593 to 1633 and was one of the metaphysical poets who wrote in 17th-century England. I defer to the wisdom of T.S. Eliot, who said that metaphysical poetry is extremely difficult to define but generally is characterized by the use of conceit, which is an extended metaphor, and reflections on the invisible reality.
Both of these characteristics are exemplified in Herbert’s poem, “The Pulley,” which presents us with the scene of the creation of man. Naturally, “The Pulley” is not a historical account of creation, but it is a means of understanding why work was always built into the divine plan for mankind, even before our relationship with it was corrupted by the fall….